Vithagan Review

Nov 19, 2011
Review by : AK Content Team

Starring : R. Parthiban, Poorna
Direction : R. Parthiban
Music : Joshua Sridhar
Production : Manickam Narayanan

Very few in the industry is as wild and creative as Parthiban. His creations, while brimming with quirky inventiveness always manage to brush the wild side of things. For the same reason, you can always bank upon Parthiban to not take your intelligence for granted. He can hovering pretty close to being insensitive but there is always an element of entertainment even when he does that. With Vithagan, Parthiban is trying mighty hard to revive his career and he almost achieves perfect balance between logic and entertainment in Vithagan. Like is said, almost.

The story is nothing new - in fact, it’s hard not to notice the nineties look the movie seems to carry throughout. Parthiban is an honest cop with a singular motto of eradicating evil from the system. No he’s not a superhero but the one who uses the loopholes in the system to seal them, and kick a few asses in the process. But it’s not that he has no motive behind it. Turns out, he’s just taking revenge. He’s not an orphan as he claims to be. He poses to be an orphan to mask his identity.

Parthiban’s one-line story might look crisp on paper and he has managed to keep it crisp, filled with twists and turns in the first half. The movie keeps you hooked, engaging us with it as it unfolds during the first half. As you think, there is more such entertainment in the second half as well, Parthiban nosedives and goes from incredible to implausible in just a few minutes into the second half. It’s quite comprehensible since you need a mighty pen and an impossible amount of creative talent to follow up the engaging first half with an even better second. So the second ends up being a mockery, even an important character’s death not so much evokes any emotion from you for the sheer fact that it was too illogical and dramatic.

You should give it to Parthiban for getting it perfect in the first half. His witty dialogues, although not double entendre, are filled with pun. He has a sharp wit and a sharper pen, as always. So the writer in him leashes his talent on the viewers and the dialogues are one of the many pluses of the movie. Joshua Sridhar’s music is another plus for the movie and Parthiban’s quirky lyrics render a novel quality to the
songs.

Parthiban is impeccable in his role but it’s Poorna who has had a better deal. As one of the few female characters in the movie, she delivers an earnest performance as an innocent Christian girl falling hopelessly in love with a seemingly insensitive cop. The more you look at her, the more you think she is imitating Asin. May be she wants to be a fill in. Milind Soman and Vincent Asokan are the two other
characters that deserve mention.

On the whole, Vithagan might have been a better product. Too many characters, too many incidents that one can handle and too many illogical sequences dampen your excitement about the second half. Nevertheless, the movie is a good time pass what with pedestrian comedy to entertain you in parts.

Verdict: Vithagan – with a gun, but no bullets!

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